Review: Google’s Nexus 7 is a good value, despite what it’s missing

Since early 2010, Google has put its name on a series of smartphones under the Nexus brand. Typically, these flagship phones are tied to the release of a new version of Android, and the hardware is designed to show off the software.

The Nexus phones are unique in that, while Google’s hardware partners build them, they are “pure” Android, without interface overlays and crapware normally associated with mainstream Android devices. As a bonus, the Nexus products also get Android updates in a timely fashion, as carriers and handset makers don’t have to test and approve the update before they’re pushed out.

As a result, the Nexus phones are beloved by the geekerati. But they don’t get much traction among mainstream users because of their limited distribution, though recently (as in the case of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus) carriers have begun to offer them.

Now, Google has extended the Nexus brand to a tablet. TheNexus 7 is, as the name implies, a 7-inch device in the same vein as Samsung’s original Galaxy Tab or Amazon.com’s Kindle Fire. As with the Nexus phones, it has a clean installation of Android – in this case, version 4.1, known as Jelly Bean. Google has begun marketing this tablet in a very mainstream way, complete with family-oriented, warm/fuzzy television ads.

I’ve been playing with a Nexus 7 for a few weeks now, and on the surface it is an impressive tablet. It’s thin, light and feels very comfortable in your hands. The hardware is fast, the screen responsive and the interface feels very natural and fluid.

But for some reason, I can’t get particularly excited about the Nexus 7. When people have asked me what I think, I’ve been saying this: “It’s nice, but you know, it feels like just another Android tablet.”

About the most compelling thing about the Nexus 7 is its price. It sells for $199, which is also what Amazon’s asking for its Kindle Fire tablet, which has inferior hardware. This may be the best buy in a tablet at the moment, at least in the 7-inch form factor.

But it strikes me that the way Google’s getting to that low price point may be what mutes my enthusiasm for the Nexus 7. The $199 version comes with a minimal 8 GB of storage; a $249 model gets you a still-paltry 16 GB. There’s no way to expand the storage – there’s no microSD card slot.

Google wants you to rely heavily on its cloud-based services for storage-intensive things like music and movies – there’s a big emphasis on selling you media through its Google Play online store – but that’s on a device that connects to the Net via Wi-Fi only. There’s no mobile broadband version of this tablet, which means if you don’t have Wi-Fi, all that stuff you’ve stored in the cloud is inaccessible.

(This limitation is actually hammered home in the ad I’ve included above, in which a father and are seen “camping” in the woods, their experience enriched by a Nexus 7. It turns out the woods actually are in the backyard of a fairly swanky home . . . which, presumably, has a decent Wi-Fi router nearby.)

The ASUS-built Nexus 7 has a powerful quad-core nVidia Tegra 3 processor and 1 gigabyte of RAM. The 7-inch display has a 1200-by-800 resolution which, while not considered retina quality, is decent. It has a front-facing, 1.2-megapixel camera designed primarily for videoconferencing, but no back-facing camera. It’s also got Bluetooth, a full GPS and a Near Field Communications (NFC) chip. The latter enables mobile payment capabilities.

These features are packed into a 12-ounce case that’s less than half an inch thick. It has a rubberized back that makes its easy to hold. Because it’s light and comfortable, this is a great device for reading or watching videos in a chair or in bed.

The Nexus 7 also has excellent battery life. With regular use, I’ve gone several days at a time without having to charge it, and extended periods of watching video over Wi-Fi put only a few-percent-points dent in its battery life. Google claims the Nexus 7 can play up to 9 hours of HD video, and that seems about right, based on my usage.

This newest version of Android is the most polished yet. Google has worked hard to make Android 4.1′s interface feel more fluid as part an initiative called Project Butter. While it still doesn’t match the intuitiveness and attractiveness of Apple’s latest iOS, Jelly Bean is a big step forward for Android.

(There are some other, interesting features of Android 4.1, such as Google Now, that I’ll address in a later TechBlog post.)

When I first got the Nexus 7, I asked my Twitter followers who have Android tablets what apps they recommended that support the larger screen. I tried several of them, but none particularly impressed me in the way that iPad apps do. For example, several mentioned Plume as a good, tablet-oriented Twitter app. But it doesn’t stack up in terms of design and usability against Tweetbot or Echofon on the iPad. Despite Android’s interface gains, developers have yet to take advantage of Android tablet real estate in an elegant way.

Because of this, I don’t really see the Nexus 7 as competition for the 10-inch iPad. Instead, it goes head-to-head with the 7-inch Kindle Fire . . . and the Nexus 7 wins handily. If you’re looking for an fast, lightweight, 7-inch Android tablet, the Nexus 7 is clearly your best choice – even with its storage and connectivity limitations.

[A postscript: This endorsement of the Nexus 7 over the Kindle Fire may not last long. Amazon has a product announcement coming Sept. 6 that's expected to include a new version of that tablet, with improved specs and possibly a lower price. And Apple is also rumored to be launching its own 7-inch iPad. If you're interested in the 7-inch form factor, you may want to wait, watch and learn.]